Owing to the increasing use of e-commerce and of online mail order business, the number of parcels sent in the mail has risen significantly. A significant target group of this Internet business is made up of employed people who appreciate, in particular, the convenience and the independence from the opening times of retail outlets. However, these advantages become fully effective only when the goods which are ordered online can also be conveniently delivered. However, home delivery poses problems particularly for the target group of employed people because the customers making the orders are frequently not at home at the time of delivery.
Against this background, it is desirable to provide, in addition to the normal delivery of letters in letter mailboxes with slot-shaped openings for the insertion of the letters, also a possibility which is independent of the presence of the receiver, so that relatively large shipments such as small packets or parcels can be delivered.
For this purpose, large collection stations are already known which have a plurality of storage compartments in which a mail delivery agent can place the parcels. After users of the collection stations have received appropriate notification from the delivery agent and have proven their identity at the collection station, they can open the corresponding storage compartment and remove the parcel. A corresponding system is described, for example, in DE 20 2011 101 134 U1. However, disadvantages of these collection stations are the expenditure on their administration and collection of the parcels for the user, who has to walk or drive specially to a collection station in order to actually receive the parcels which are delivered to him.
In particular for reasons of convenience for the user it is desirable also to provide delivery possibilities in a substantially more decentralized fashion, for example in each case separately for a specific recipient. In this context, it is known from DE 20 2012 012 010 U1 to provide devices for accommodating shipments of all types, which devices are constructed from a combination of at least one letter mailbox with an insertion slot which is accessible from the outside, at least one lockable letter mailbox door for removing the letters and at least one parcel compartment with a lockable parcel compartment door. However, here the door of the parcel compartment and the door of the letter mailbox are provided with separate locks, which entails the disadvantage that at least the owner of the device has to keep two different key systems available for the access to the parcel compartment and letter compartment.